


Breath in, breath out, Everybody scream Fuck!

by AcheeryDonught



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Apocalypse, M/M, Post-Apocalypse, Zombie Apocalypse, ugghhh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-08 07:35:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15925829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AcheeryDonught/pseuds/AcheeryDonught
Summary: listen there are like 10 zombie au fics in this fandom and I'm being the change I want to see in the world.When Jack zimmermann gets the chance to get to canada he accepts, on the way he'll meet an ex lawyer and a whole host of other people who will change his life forever.





	1. Chapter 1

Jacks first thought upon seeing the broken down bus that was to be his home for the next month was perhaps Johnson was not as kind as he seemed, and instead wanted to send him to an early grave by stress. Well, that's not strictly true, his first thought was in Quebec and riddled with profanities. But the point still stood. This bus looked like a death trap and if he survived a month in it he would eat his skates if he still had them at the end of this journey. 

 

Shittys first thought on seeing the bus was that perhaps, not for the first time, he’d bitten off more than he could chew, it had all seemed like such a great idea, Jack needed to get to Canada, he needed to not loose Jack and getting to help other people along the way was the cherry on top. Thinking back to Johnsons offer he turned to face the man in question. 

 

“Hey my man, you promised us a working ride, and this thing doesn't look like it’s working?” 

 

He tried to keep his voice neutral but a bit of panic slipped in at the end, if this fell through then Jack might leave for Canada without him and he couldn’t lose Jack, he didn’t let himself think what would happen if he did loose jack, only allowed himself to come to terms with the fact that he couldn’t let that happen. 

“We need a working ride too get to Canada and help you out, Johnson.” 

 

The man in questions lip quirked, like he was in on a joke that none of the others were in on. 

 

“Yes, I’m calling in a few favours, the rest of your travelling crew will be here in about a week, for now, you can stay in the hotel and help me with some small jobs, I’ll gladly compensate you for your time.”

 

“Jonson this isn’t a joke, I need to get to Canada.” 

 

His voice rose a little in anger on those last few words and recognising the signs Shitty pulled him back a few steps and turned in to face him

 

“Brah I know you need to get to Canada and this is annoying but this is the best shot we’ve got, this guy? Johnson? he’s got a whole network of people which means free fuel and someplace to crash and no one fucking with us like the Chads.” 

 

If nothing else the mention of Shittys long-standing enemies helped bring Jack down, he nodded at Shitty then walked off around the corner of the hotel. Shitty turned to the other man.

 

“We’ll take it, but I reserve the right to free food and board if this bucket of crap breaks down before we reach Canada.” 

 

Johnson broke into a beaming smile and shook Shittys hand, 

 

“Thanks for doing this, the plot just needs some time to get started, introduce all the key characters you know?” 

 

Shitty did not know and was a little worried about trusting this guy, despite what he’d told Jack, but every source he had said this guy was legit and desperate times called for desperate measures. If worst came to worst he was pretty sure he and Jack could take the guy. 

 

At dinner that night Jack apologised,  
“Sorry, I just..” He paused, letting the noise of the other people dining fill in the gap. “I just want to find them as soon as possible.” Shitty nodded, no more words needed. He spent the rest of dinner telling Jack about the finer points of post-apocalyptic property law.

 

People waking Larrisa by barging into her room wasn’t uncommon, everyone wanted her to immortalise their loved ones on buildings in the hope of finding them and very few people cared about preserving the fragile balance that was her sleep schedule, people waking her by barging in and screaming “Lardo holy fuck!” however was a much rarer occurrence, which is why she pulled her head off the pillow and glared at the person currently wrestling with the wires strung across the middle of the room to stop people from being able to sneak up on her. Seeing it was Ransom and Holster she let her head drop back onto the pillow.

 

“What the fuck do you two want?” 

“Lards you’ll never-”  
“We only know because-” 

A sharp glare from Lardo forces them to get to the point. 

“letter, from a bloke called Johnson, said he was calling in a favour.” 

Lardo was out the door before the two of them could direct any more questions at her, Johnson was providing housing for her family and if he was calling in a favour that could mean any number of things was wrong. She raced down to the front desk of the dilapidated travelodge that was the base of the local “Helpers”- Anyone with medical training, rescue work or the skills to put up portraits of those missing in the hope of someone recognising them lived there, so they were easy to reach. 

She nodded to the lady on the front desk (Jessica, 29, missing her wife but her son was in the daycare across the street) and picked up the folded piece of paper held out for her. 

Larrisa, Don’t worry your family are fine, but I know you’ve helped as much as you can in that area and I have a team aiming to travel to Canada in need of someone with your talents managing people, your old friend B.S is in this team. It would be much appreciated if you could bring Adam and Justin along, it would really help their character development. As you won’t be moved by friendship alone I will state that your sister will receive an extra helping of rations for this deal. Head to the centre, if you find people on the way bring them too.  
\- Johnson 

 

Well. Guess she was going back to Johnson’s home base, not many people in the village needed medical attention and there was meant to be a new doctor coming out from Kansas so Ransom wouldn’t feel bad about leaving with her, wherever Ransom went Holster was sure to follow, and she was pretty sure Ransom’s family where still up in Canada so it shouldn’t be a hard sell. 

 

She brought it up one of their late-night drinking sessions, Holster had worked for an old 6 pack of beer and the three of them sat on Lardo’s balcony drinking in the sunset and the relative safety in numbers. 

 

“I’ve been offered a job that involves going up to Canada, with an old friend of mine, there's space for the both of you if you want.” 

She takes a long swig of her beer, it tastes bad, it always does but it’s a small bit of normalcy and right now she can use it to mask her nervousness. Sure she knew Shitty before all this but people change and hell he might not remember her, these two idiots where her closest friends and the thought of leaving them without the certainty of being able to see them again left a taste in her mouth worse than the beer. 

Ransom coughed “Yeah, my family's up in Canada, I haven’t seen them since all this went down so It’d be nice to uh, see them again.” He stared off into the sunset and wrapped an arm around Holster's shoulder. Holster looked at him and smiled a little sadly. 

 

“Yeah, I haven’t got much tying me here so if both of you are going I guess I’ll tag along. Both Lardo and Ransom nudged him a little and the three of them sat staring into the horizon.


	2. Chapter 2

Eric Bittle had always been close to his mother, Suzanne Bittle was his best friend, if his only friend, but it was nice to be able to be unapologetically himself and not worry if he winked at the handsome man in the Mcdonalds. Which is why when the news picked up a story about a new illness that rotted you away from the inside out he didn’t turn tail for Georgia, he called his mum twice a week and when she said the preacher was throwing around words like the end of days he laughed and said he’d be fine out here in the city. 

He wishes he could go back. 

When things had gone majorly wrong, and what felt like every tenth person was trying to take a bite out of him he tried to make it back home, it was a shitty open all night cafe where he heard the news, it still had electricity back then and although he couldn’t remember what he ordered he knows he’ll remember the way the cheap coffee turned to ash in his mouth when he saw his town up on the news. 

Horde. Tore through the town. No known survivors. 

In a way, he was almost thankful when he had to turn tail and run because of the group controlling the town held the same beliefs as some of the folks back home. He barely paused to pack all the things out of the dingy hotel and if it hadn’t been for Ford god knows he might not have made it out of the South. 

Ford was the waitress who’d taken off running as soon as she’d heard what had happened, like Eric she was trying to make it back to family when she heard. Horde, no survivors. She’d patted Eric on the back when he was dry heaving in an alley because as pathetic as it was the smell of frying made him remember with horrific clarity how it felt to realise he’d left his family alone to die a horrific death and God just because he couldn’t face coming out to his mother. Eric had broken his granola bar in half and the two of them had agreed to stick together, When Ford just wanted to curl up under a blanket and let the zombies take her Eric made sure she ate and that they kept moving north. 

The south held nothing for either of them anymore. 

–

Lardo and the boys left early the next morning, early was easier, no goodbyes except for the ever watchful Jessica, Lardo had stayed up late into the night sketching a small portrait of Emily, Jessicas wife, Lardo was planning to put up a few sketches on the way to Canada, she had quite a few spare materials and hopefully wouldn’t need to bust out her skills on the journey if this was, as Johnson promised, a manager thing. The three of them checked they had all they needed and left, none of them looked back. 

They’d been walking for the best part of the day when Lardo spotted them, a small boy and girl skirting the edges of the wreckage ahead, what might have in another life been a gas station was now the charred remains of something. 

The boy was about the same height as Lardo if a bit taller, the girl was a bit shorter than him and both of them appeared to be the reason for the former gas stations destruction. 

“Hey!” 

The two of them looked up at her shout and after a passionate discussion inched closer 

“Hey!” The girl yelled back “My name is Ford, this is Eric, we haven’t got anything and we’d appreciate-” There was another hasty discussion, the boy started waving his arms around. 

“If any of you have any medical experience then we could find something to trade you!” 

The girl clipped the boy on the back of the head and the two of them where consumed by their own argument as Lardo Holster and Ransom looked at each other. 

In a unspoken unanimous vote the three of them jogged towards the still arguing couple, whose argument pettered off when they noticed their approach. 

The blonde introduced himself first, Eric Bittle, He came from the south and wanted to go north. The girl followed, she said her name was Ford and that she was just travelling. The two of them had some pretty serious injuries, the girl had several burns along her arm from where she'd thrown them up to protect herself against something and the boy had a nasty scrape along his back. The two of them seemed ill at ease but when Ransom and Holster decided to burst into a duet to help distract ford from the pain of the mix Ransom had put on some of the nastier cuts they seemed to come to the conclusion that they where mostly harmless. 

When everyone else has fallen asleep and it's just Larissa and the night sky she allows herself to think, she knows it's dangerous but aside from the ruins of the gas station the surrounding area is empty and it's one of those spaces so big that when you look up you can almost see the sky curve in the corners and you realize exactly how big the night sky is. If she had the paint she'd try to paint it, the world going to shit scattered her affection for traditional canvases, they where bulky and impossible to transport, switching them for walls or clothes was a stedfast way to mean that your art stayed somewhere. Even if you where gone. 

pulling herself back from that line of thought and sweeping the horizon meant that she almost missed Eric sitting up, he pulled his arms and legs into himself and with nothing but the stars and the moon to illuminate him he looked lonely. She coughed slightly to announce her presence. 

"Oh- Hey Larissa! Sorry to disturb you it just gets so cold out here at night and I'm still used to the southern heat and God what my mother-" He cuts himself off with a sharp sob and throws his hand across his mouth like that last part wasn't meant to slip out. 

Fuck. Lardo hated having to comfort those who had lost people, in her job people where either looking for someone they knew survived or where kicked out of her room for wasting time. She shuffled closer to Eric and hugged him tight.   
She held on to him until he stopped shaking and his breathing evened out again, then she laid him back down and watched the sun slip above the horizon. 

Eric didn't bring up his crying session, and Larissa didn't mention it, but he did help her learn how to forage and start a fire, Ford, who already knew all this was in a discussion about musical theatre with holster, apparently she'd been a stage manager before the end of the world. 

Larissa was re-reading Johnsons letter when it hit her, she looked over at Eric and Ford, who where packing away their sleeping bags and getting ready to go. 

"We're going up north for a job, my friend says there's space for you two if you want in." 

Ford looked up at her 

"What kinda job is it?" 

Larissa shrugged, "I know they guy, it's legit, Up to Canada, he probably has family up there he wants to check on."

Ford and Eric moved away from the three of them a little, Larissa kept an ear out whilst she helped Ransom and Holster tidy up their own sleeping set up. 

"We'll come with, can't promise we'll sign on but we want to meet the guy." 

Holster smiled down at them 

"Welcome aboard guys, Is it okay if you call you Bitty?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not really happy with this chapter, or how it ends, also here's Ford! I'll edit this and all that tomorrow probably. I'm going to college so yeah! ((Help))

**Author's Note:**

> please comment the doctor said I was lacking in validation. 10 chapters is a rough guess, I have most of the next one written out. My editing is terrible so if you see a mistake please say, or if you see how you think I can improve.


End file.
